In This Article:
Premier Foods plc (LON:PFD), might not be a large cap stock, but it saw a decent share price growth in the teens level on the LSE over the last few months. With many analysts covering the stock, we may expect any price-sensitive announcements have already been factored into the stock’s share price. But what if there is still an opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at Premier Foods’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if the opportunity still exists.
View our latest analysis for Premier Foods
What is Premier Foods worth?
The share price seems sensible at the moment according to my price multiple model, where I compare the company's price-to-earnings ratio to the industry average. I’ve used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because there’s not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stock’s ratio of 11.15x is currently trading slightly below its industry peers’ ratio of 13.67x, which means if you buy Premier Foods today, you’d be paying a decent price for it. And if you believe that Premier Foods should be trading at this level in the long run, then there’s not much of an upside to gain over and above other industry peers. Is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Since Premier Foods’s share price is quite volatile, we could potentially see it sink lower (or rise higher) in the future, giving us another chance to buy. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market.
Can we expect growth from Premier Foods?
Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. Though in the case of Premier Foods, it is expected to deliver a relatively unexciting earnings growth of 1.3%, which doesn’t help build up its investment thesis. Growth doesn’t appear to be a main reason for a buy decision for the company, at least in the near term.
What this means for you:
Are you a shareholder? PFD’s future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around industry price multiples. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at PFD? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuate below the industry PE ratio?